Striking a Balance between Point-of-Care and in Laboratory Testing

I am a big supporter of Point-of-Care testing (POCT), when it is appropriate. There is no question that we need to be consistently looking at how we can provide quality testing closer to the patient to provide more rapid turnaround testing to aid in diagnosis and appropriate treatment. However, the trade off with POCT is that it is not always as precise or as sensitive as the testing performed in the laboratory. So how do you know when to do POCT?

Here’s a link to a good, short article from Clinical Laboratory News by Kathleen David, MT(ASCP) at TriCore Reference Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico related to this topic.

About J.R.

Rodric Consulting, LLC is a Clinical Laboratory Consulting company specializing in providing consulting services for hospital or health system based laboratories in a variety of areas, including CLIA, Productivity and Non-Labor savings, and Interim Management consulting.